Five weeks of highway reconstruction start near Thomsons Creek Bridge, west of Omakau this week.

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) crews will be carrying out work through to Friday, March 14.  

The bridge will be closed to the intersection with Ophir Bridge Road. 

Close to 600m of highway needed to be replaced, from the eastern end of the Thomsons Creek Bridge to about 40m south of the Wilton St/SH85 intersection.

The work was needed to fully reconstruct the road surface to give good traction and improve safety for road users is weather dependent. 

Maintenance contract manager for NZTA in Central Otago Peter Standring said dates could vary if it is wet or cold.

Drivers will face delays up to ten minutes as one lane of the road will be tackled at a time and traffic managed with stop/go, with speeds down to 30km/hour.

Crews will be on site from 7am each day through to 6 pm, weekdays only.

Outside of these hours, the road will be unattended with speeds reduced to 30km/hour and open in both directions.

NZTA thanked all road users for taking care around our crews while this work is underway and building in the extra ten minutes daytimes to keep everyone’s journey stress-free over the five weeks or so.